It's just Thursday and it's been a tremendous sports week already. Monday featured a buzzer-beating victory by Villanova in the NCAA championship game against the storied North Carolina Tar Heels. It was a high level game with a perfect ending, at least for Villanova. No cigar for Roy Williams this year. Jay Wright finally wins one as a head coach after 15 solid years at Villanova. Nothing succeeds like success and when you win the championship at the highest level, you are looked and treated completely different. Wright probably got himself another 15 years of job security with that win. This week also saw the Major League Baseball kick off their season. Being an even year, all eyes are on the SF Giants and they are looking good at 3-1. Both my teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Oakland Athletics, are not distinguishing themselves in any meaningful way yet. But this is a marathon and not a sprint. Hope they string some victories together soon.
Amidst all of this, the NBA regular season is winding down in style as there are quite a few streaks, records, and associated stories in play. The Warriors went from comfortably heading towards 74 or even 75 wins to now making the pursuit of the Bulls 72-game win record a nail-biting affair. They have to win out their last 3 games to get the record and this is only because they lost to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves after leading by 15. It's one thing to lose to a well-coached, playoff-bound Boston Celtics team, but quite another to lose to the TWolves at home. That gave the dubs 2 losses out of 3 home games after starting the season 36-0 at home. Never has a late season loss with no playoff consequence made so much news, but when you are chasing one of the most difficult records in all of sports, such a loss rightfully becomes the main topic in the sports world. Talking heads blamed the Warriors' problems on tired legs and wondered if the pressure of this pursuit is taking a toll on their season.
Whatever the reason is, head scratching turnovers are this Warrior teams' Achilles' heel. They are in the midst of a real bad turnover stretch the last few weeks and their execution is not what it was when they were blowing everybody out by 30. Their offensive efficiency and 3-pointing shooting may still be good, but if they turn the ball over 12 extra times and give up 15 points off of those, you are looking at a 25+ point swing if you factor in all the shots the dubs missed taking because of them turnovers. Thats how they end up in a tight ball game in the 4th quarter these days. May be they are physically tired and mentally exhausted, but they need to stop this live-ball donation program if they want to win the championship. They won a big one today against a near full-strength Spurs team. There were a few ugly turnovers again, but they overcame those and dominated the Spurs. They have 2 more against the Grizzles, but the road game against the Spurs on Sunday is going to be the main event. Spurs themselves have a shot at a 41-0 home record, which is pretty sweet, and it's hard to predict what Pop will do with that game. If he doesn't rest his stars, Dubs will be in a fist-fight and may have to settle for a loss and a 72-win season.
Winning 72 NBA games in a season is a massive achievement, but after all this, it will feel like a failure for this Warriors team. They are so close and we will know in just 3 games if they wrap it up.
Amidst all of this, the NBA regular season is winding down in style as there are quite a few streaks, records, and associated stories in play. The Warriors went from comfortably heading towards 74 or even 75 wins to now making the pursuit of the Bulls 72-game win record a nail-biting affair. They have to win out their last 3 games to get the record and this is only because they lost to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves after leading by 15. It's one thing to lose to a well-coached, playoff-bound Boston Celtics team, but quite another to lose to the TWolves at home. That gave the dubs 2 losses out of 3 home games after starting the season 36-0 at home. Never has a late season loss with no playoff consequence made so much news, but when you are chasing one of the most difficult records in all of sports, such a loss rightfully becomes the main topic in the sports world. Talking heads blamed the Warriors' problems on tired legs and wondered if the pressure of this pursuit is taking a toll on their season.
Whatever the reason is, head scratching turnovers are this Warrior teams' Achilles' heel. They are in the midst of a real bad turnover stretch the last few weeks and their execution is not what it was when they were blowing everybody out by 30. Their offensive efficiency and 3-pointing shooting may still be good, but if they turn the ball over 12 extra times and give up 15 points off of those, you are looking at a 25+ point swing if you factor in all the shots the dubs missed taking because of them turnovers. Thats how they end up in a tight ball game in the 4th quarter these days. May be they are physically tired and mentally exhausted, but they need to stop this live-ball donation program if they want to win the championship. They won a big one today against a near full-strength Spurs team. There were a few ugly turnovers again, but they overcame those and dominated the Spurs. They have 2 more against the Grizzles, but the road game against the Spurs on Sunday is going to be the main event. Spurs themselves have a shot at a 41-0 home record, which is pretty sweet, and it's hard to predict what Pop will do with that game. If he doesn't rest his stars, Dubs will be in a fist-fight and may have to settle for a loss and a 72-win season.
Winning 72 NBA games in a season is a massive achievement, but after all this, it will feel like a failure for this Warriors team. They are so close and we will know in just 3 games if they wrap it up.
1 comment:
I've always liked underdogs (especially when I don't have a rooting interest) so I was hoping Villanova would win it all -- glad to see them beat the favorites in both games and win the title (after years of falling short despite high expectations).
What a weekend it was for the Golden State Warriors! Back-to-back road games against playoff teams in tough arenas and they won both! Tres impressive! Maybe all those turnovers they had before were just a lack of concentration. When their backs were against the wall (with history on the line) they came through in flying colors, especially defensively, which bodes well for the playoffs. They've re-established themselves as the team to beat and should make for an exciting post-season!
(Of course, if they lose their final game to Memphis at home, I take back everything I said ;-)
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